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🏡 Renters’ Rights Bill 2025: What Landlords Need to Know
Major updates to tenancy laws are on the way. The Renters’ Rights Bill is introducing a wave of reforms aimed at improving conditions for tenants — and placing new duties on landlords. Here’s a clear breakdown of the upcoming changes and what they mean for you:
🏠 1. Goodbye to Section 21 Evictions
What’s changing: Landlords will no longer be able to evict tenants without giving a valid reason.
What it means for you: All evictions must follow a formal legal process under an updated Section 8, with specific grounds such as rent arrears or serious breach of tenancy.
📜 2. Shift to Rolling Tenancies
What’s changing: Fixed-term tenancies will be replaced with open-ended, rolling agreements.
What it means for you: Tenancies will automatically continue until either party gives notice, offering tenants greater housing security.
🏚️ 3. Minimum Housing Standards Apply to All
What’s changing: The Decent Homes Standard — once used only in social housing — will now apply to private rentals.
What it means for you: Properties must be safe, well-maintained, and free from major hazards.
🐾 4. Fair Pet Requests
What’s changing: Tenants will have the legal right to request a pet, and landlords can only decline for reasonable grounds.
What it means for you: You can request pet insurance, but blanket bans will no longer be allowed.
💷 5. Rent Controls Tightened
What’s changing: Rent increases will be limited to once per year and must reflect local market conditions.
What it means for you: A minimum of two months' notice is required for any rent change, following a standardised format.
📊 6. National Landlord Register Introduced
What’s changing: A new database will record every private landlord and their properties.
What it means for you: Registration will be mandatory and used by councils to monitor compliance and resolve disputes.
👨👩👧 7. No More Discrimination Against Families or Benefit Claimants
What’s changing: It will be unlawful to refuse applicants simply because they have children or receive benefits.
What it means for you: All applicants must be assessed fairly, based on their financial reliability — not their background.
🛠️ 8. Stronger Penalties for Breaking the Rules
What’s changing: Local councils will gain enhanced powers to enforce housing laws.
What it means for you: Fines can reach up to £40,000, and serious breaches may result in Rent Repayment Orders covering up to two years.
✅ How Landlords Can Prepare
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Update Tenancy Agreements: Ensure your contracts align with new rolling tenancy rules.
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Inspect and Upgrade Properties: Make sure your rentals meet the new housing standards.
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Get Ready to Register: Keep an eye out for the launch of the landlord database and get your paperwork in order.
The Renters’ Rights Bill represents a big shift in how landlords operate — but also a chance to run your rental business more transparently and professionally. Acting early will help you stay compliant and build better relationships with your tenants.
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Spring is often considered the most vibrant and refreshing time of the year. The days get longer, the flowers bloom, and the world seems to come alive again. But for homeowners looking to sell their property, spring offers more than just a beautiful backdrop—it’s an ideal season to list your home. Whether you’re a first-time seller or an experienced property owner, here’s why spring should be your go-to time for putting your property on the market in the UK.
1. The Weather Works in Your Favour ☀️
One of the biggest advantages of listing your property in spring is the weather. After months of winter gloom, buyers are eager to venture out and explore properties. The warmer temperatures and longer days make for more comfortable viewings, meaning potential buyers are more likely to spend time touring homes.
Tip: Bright, sunny days can also make your property look its best. The natural light highlights the features of your home, while the garden or outdoor spaces appear more inviting.
2. Higher Demand and More Buyers 📈
Spring is historically one of the busiest seasons in the property market. With the new year well underway, many buyers are ready to move forward with their plans to buy a home. Families, in particular, prefer to settle into a new property before the summer holidays or the start of a new school term, and spring provides the perfect window for this.
Moreover, the UK housing market tends to see an uptick in new listings during spring, meaning a large pool of buyers are actively seeking homes, which can increase the chances of securing a sale.
3. Buyers Are More Emotionally Engaged ❤️
Spring has a way of making everything feel fresh and full of potential. The vibrant greenery, blossoming flowers, and overall sense of renewal inspire optimism and excitement, which is reflected in the mindset of potential buyers. People are more likely to fall in love with a property when they can imagine it surrounded by beautiful outdoor spaces or envision themselves enjoying the long summer evenings in the garden.
With homes looking their best thanks to the changing season, it’s easier for buyers to imagine themselves living in the space.
4. Increased Curb Appeal 🌳
Spring is a time when gardens and outdoor areas come into their own. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to showcase your garden, now is the moment. Freshly mowed lawns, blossoming flowers, and well-maintained outdoor spaces can significantly increase your property’s curb appeal.
Tip: Make sure to tidy up the garden and add some seasonal plants to create a welcoming first impression. A well-maintained exterior can make all the difference in attracting potential buyers.
5. Competitive Pricing 💷
Spring sees a lot of activity in the property market, which can be beneficial for sellers. As more properties come to market, the competition increases, but this can also work in your favour. A well-priced home that is move-in ready will likely attract more interest and possibly even generate multiple offers.
The increased buyer demand often means that you’ll get more viewings and potentially a quicker sale, helping you achieve a price that reflects your property’s true value.
6. Ideal Time for Families 👨👩👧👦
For families, buying a new home in the spring allows them to move in during the summer months, before the start of the new school year. This is especially appealing for parents who want to settle into a new home without disrupting their children’s education.
As spring brings warmer weather, families often have more flexibility to look at homes without the pressures of winter weather, and spring break or holidays can provide additional time for viewings.
7. Better Access to Mortgage Rates and Financial Incentives 💰
In spring, many buyers find themselves in a good position financially, as they’ve had time to settle their budgets for the year. This is also when a number of government schemes and financial incentives come into play, making it easier for first-time buyers to secure a mortgage or take advantage of lower interest rates. The UK property market tends to be more active when buyers are feeling financially confident, which benefits sellers who are ready to put their homes on the market.
8. The Perfect Opportunity for Spring Cleaning & Home Staging 🧹
Spring cleaning is a tradition for a reason—it helps refresh and rejuvenate your home. Before you list your property, it’s the ideal time to declutter, clean, and stage your home to make it look its absolute best. By giving your property a thorough deep clean and showcasing it in its most appealing light, you’ll make a lasting impression on potential buyers.
Tip: Staging your home in spring with light, fresh décor and a neutral palette can make it feel inviting and spacious, encouraging buyers to see the full potential of the space.
Conclusion: Spring Brings New Beginnings for Sellers 🌼
Spring is undoubtedly one of the most promising times to list your property in the UK. The combination of better weather, higher buyer demand, and increased emotional appeal makes this season a seller’s dream. So, if you’ve been contemplating putting your home on the market, now might be the perfect time to take the leap.
With the right preparation, a spring listing can help you achieve the best possible sale for your home. So, get ready to embrace the season, and let your property shine!
Happy selling! ✨
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Halfway through a highly eventful year, the UK property market is finally beginning to settle down
We’re almost midway through the current decade, and so far, there’s been very little to cheer. The UK property market has been on a rollercoaster journey driven by external events – a pandemic and the ensuing race for space, a cost of living crisis, inward migration and rampant inflation.
Yet as we enter the second half of 2024, there are encouraging signs that the property market may finally be stabilising. A raft of news stories towards the end of June suggested the rest of the year will be more benign to sellers and buyers alike than the preceding period – especially once the dust has settled after the general election…
Positive news
June saw the long-awaited announcement that inflation has finally hit the government’s two per cent target. This should encourage the Bank of England to bring down interest rates, in turn enabling mortgage lenders to reduce their repayment costs. This will benefit existing mortgage holders on variable rates and those approaching the end of favourable fixed-rate deals – but it’ll be most keenly felt by people saving for their first home.
The UK property market would collapse without first-time buyers purchasing affordable homes, enabling sellers to move up the ladder and underpinning property chains. Soaring house prices have been an obstacle to first-time buyer activity, so there was more good news in June as a tranche of house price reports indicated a levelling off in values. Although different platforms use their own pricing models and statistical data, the stories they tell have been remarkably consistent:
- Rightmove data on asking prices in Great Britain showed a 0.0 per cent change month-on-month, with properties being advertised for just £21 less than in May.
- Zoopla also reported a 0.0 per cent month-on-month change in their most recent data, with average UK house prices just £210 lower (0.1 per cent) than in April 2023.
- Bucking the trend, the Office for National Statistics reported a 1.1 per cent increase in average UK house prices in the year to April 2024, albeit still a modest rise.
Local focus
While national figures paint a picture of UK property market activity, local data is far more important for buyers in Newcastle and the north-east. The latest Rightmove data shows a modest three per cent decrease in selling prices throughout Newcastle over the last year, whereas ONS data shows a three per cent increase during the same period. The truth is probably somewhere in between and reflects the reports mentioned above– prices are holding steady. In many respects, this is the ideal scenario; sellers don’t have to worry about their assets depreciating, and buyers can save without seeing house prices racing away from them.
Rightmove’s data suggests Tyneside prices have returned to the levels we saw at the market’s 2021 peak of £215,000 on average. Flats here remain among the most affordable in Britain, with average selling prices of just over £128,000, while ONS data suggests the average price paid by first-time buyers across Tyneside in April 2024 was £167,000. That’s roughly five times average UK earnings, compared to a ratio of 12 times average earnings required by first time buyers in London. Then again, the north-east remains by far the cheapest place to buy property in England.
As a locally based agent, with an instinctive and in-depth knowledge of the local market, Cloud Estates is ideally placed to help sellers and buyers navigate the unexpectedly calm waters of today’s UK property market. Get in touch on 0191 640 2478 to see how we can help you navigate the property ladder.
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Our tenth anniversary provides a fitting moment to reflect on past achievements and future plans
Most businesses can trace their history back to modest beginnings. Morrisons began as a market stall, Microsoft operated out of a garage and McDonalds consisted of a single burger shack. It takes hard work, creativity and professionalism to build a new business up from scratch – something the two co-founders of Cloud Estates are currently reflecting on as their boutique estate agency celebrates its tenth anniversary.
Location, location, location
When lifelong friends James Skoyles and Jordan Bowe started trading out of a small office in Kingston Park, they had ambitious plans to grow their fledgling estate agency business. Moving to the more high-profile setting of Jesmond in 2014 turbocharged Cloud Estates’ growth, with a further relocation to Heaton in late 2021 giving the brand a double-fronted high street shop with excellent visibility and accessibility.
As well as upgrading premises during the last ten years, Cloud Estates has also expanded its team. There are now eight full-time staff including a sales negotiator with more than 20 years’ experience, and two in-house maintenance operative who helps us to manage almost 150 properties across Newcastle and Gateshead. The decision to become HMO management specialists proved particularly shrewd, with little competition in this sector. Cloud Estates has subsequently engaged with a series of innovative developers to manage some of the best high-specification HMO properties across north east England.
Tenant’s extra
While some boutique agencies focus mainly on residential property sellers, or concentrate on attracting affluent buyers, Cloud Estates has quietly built trusted relationships with tenants. The type of property tenure is far less important than nurturing strong connections with owners, landlords and tenants alike, particularly as councils up and down the UK are declaring housing emergencies. Many Cloud Estates tenants have been signed up with us since the last decade, generating consistently positive feedback which is also enthusiastically provided by buyers and vendors.
The desire to deliver quality housing for all was behind another corporate innovation – offering full property renovations as an additional service via our sister company Cloud Renovations Ltd. To date, approximately 10 large-scale renovation projects have been completed, and many more are in the pipeline, from bathroom refurbishments to full-house renovations and extensions. It’s a further acknowledgement that clients have widely differing expectations; the one-size-fits-all services offered by some companies won’t always match specific requirements.
Sailing into calmer waters
The last ten years has been among the most turbulent in the housing market’s history. Brexit, a global pandemic and war in Europe have each impacted everything from inflation to cost-of-living pressures, while migration levels and minimal housebuilding have heaped further pressure onto an already overheated property market. We’re approaching the fourth general election in nine years, and it’s impossible to predict which manifesto promises will be honoured in terms of housing. As a result, it’s more important than ever to be able to rely on seasoned property professionals who understand the Newcastle market – especially when it bucks regional or national trends.
With ambitious plans to expand the sales department that first opened in 2021, James acknowledges the many people, clients, contractors and employees who have contributed to Cloud Estates’ various successes over the last decade: “We wouldn't be where we are today without your continued support. We're so grateful for the growth our business has seen in recent years, especially since moving to Heaton, and we put much of this growth down to the fantastic team we’ve built around us. We are very excited about what the future holds…”
